The species is found from Guatemala and Belize to the Guianas, southern Brazil
and Peru. It is also known in the West Indies from Trinidad and Hispanola. In
Costa Rica and Panama, the species is known only from topical moist forest.
Anthurium gracile has a large root system that may sometimes become infested
with black, stinging ants. It is distinguished by its thin, ob-lanceolate, epunctate
leaves, persistent, intact cataphylls, the relatively few-flowered spadix, the
whitish roots, and the bright red, globose berries. Anthurium gracile
has been confused with A. friedrichsthalii,
which differs in having coriaceous, broadly linear leaves, conspicuously punctate
on the lower surface, cataphylls that soon weather to persistent fibers, flowers
more numerous on the spadix, and berries that are pale yellow-orange, broader
than long, and truncate at the apex. Anthurium gracile is also confused
with A. bakeri Hook. f.,
which has punctate leaves with a collective vein that is sunken and more conspicuous
than the primary lateral veins. Anthurium gracile is the only described
species of section Leptanthurium and is either an extremely variable
species or comprised of some additional undescribed sibling species in the Andes
of South America (Croat, 1976).